Shanghai.

FINALLY.
i can access blogger and wikipedia.

the 大哥 in china blocks any webbie that ends with .blogspot.com or .wikipedia.org.
it's sad really.
oh well.
大哥是對的！

here are the photos i took in shanghai:

CAUTION. only view them if you're extremely bored.
there are about 400 pix in all. lol.
the post's after the pix.

1st day:


2nd day:


3rd day:




shanghai.
hmmm. what can i say?

to quote Rudyard Kipling: "a dark smear under the sky". (he originally said this about London.)

i swear, once i stepped out of the plane i became a chain smoker. no breath of air went into my lungs without airborne smoke and tar too.

on the other hand, the babies were extremely cute. round and chubby, rosy-cheeked balls of joy. AND they were very quiet, shy little things.
very unusual in singapore.
and all kids there have a little slit in their pants which show their diapers. apparently it's for easy access to the diaper and cleaning. there's a pic of one such baby somewhere in day 2.

and who could forget the non-stop pollution on the streets?
not a second went by with people doing the 'HOAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH PTUI!' spitting technique. they spit anywhere and everywhere.
and i mean EVERYWHERE.
EVERYWHERE.
it rained from the second day.. i dread to think what horrors have been washed upon my shoe.

there are also many homeless beggars there - most have been handicapped in one way or another - lost limbs, blindness, the list goes on.
one cannot help but feel sorry for them.

but if one decides to give a beggar money, the rest will SWARM over to get some too.
one cannot be too kind for fear of being swarmed.

you have been warned.





cough cough.

they have warm bubble tea there. it's heavenly.
and i saw this chinese fella put chilli, soy sauce, pepper and spring onions on his - brace yourselves-




TAU HUAY. urgh. talk about confused eating habits.



and best of all, the SHOPPING.
shanghai (and also beijing) is a HAVEN for shopping.
everything and anything (of which 90% is counterfeit) can be found there really cheaply.

bargaining with the shopkeeper takes guts, patience and time - but can help one reduce the price of say, a suit that costs 3300 RMB ($660 SGD) to about 300 RMB ($60 SGD).
i can re-enact a bargaining scene if you ask me to in person. XD

and.. the most infamous thing in china: PIRACY.

piracy.
deception.
scams.
cons.

i got conned out of $60 SGD after i bought 5 fake thumb drives.

my heart bleeds.

T_T




on a lighter note, i bought quite a few transformers. HUZZAH. (they're real, btw.)
and completed my christmas shopping too.
heh heh.






and finally:













大哥是對的！WAHAHAHHAHA.